Fighting in the fields

I was roaming the gravel roads east of south of Cochrane on the weekend.  As dusk started to fall, I found a small herd of white-tailed deer in the middle of a field.  There were two bucks standing apart from four does.  The smaller male was prancing about a bit so I put on my longest lens and waited to see if anything would happen.  We are still in the middle of the rut so I was hoping they might do some antler jousting.

And, as it turned out, they did.  They clashed a couple of times with antlers cracking while they tangled head to head.  The battle was short, frenetic and I felt very lucky to watch this moment play out.

After this skirmish the smaller one darted away and they stood apart for a minute before moving up a fold in the hillside back towards the seemingly unimpressed does.

October 14, 2014 | Categories: Deer, Prairie, Wildlife | Tags: autumn, bucks, fields, fighting, prairie, rutting, stag, white-tailed deer, wildlife photography | 8 Comments